The School District of Mystery Lake (SDML) board of trustees has written a letter to Thompson’s mayor to outline their concerns and questions about the sobering centre planned for Princeton Drive, due to its proximity to Wapanohk Community School.
“We agree that such a centre would be an asset for our community,” said the letter from board chair Lindsay Anderson. “We are concerned with the location and want to ensure that all safety precautions are in place to ensure the safety of our students at Wapanohk Community School. We want to ensure that we are both good neighbours and that our concerns are discussed and considered in the design and operation of the centre. In addition, we are wondering which building will be the sobering centre?”
City council approved taking ownership of three former University College of the North (UCN) buildings on lots along Princeton Drive and Station Road from the province at their April 26 council meeting. According to a resolution about a project agreement with the province that council approved, the sobering centre will be in 494 Princeton Drive, which is actually along Station Road, west of the building on the corner of Princeton Drive and Station Road.
In 2020, the provincial government pledged $2.8 million towards the establishment of the centre, which will be owned by the city and operated through agreements with partner agencies in housing, addictions and mental health. Its purpose will be to provide a safe place, open seven days a week, 24 hours a day, for intoxicated people to sober up instead of in the drunk tank cells at the Thompson RCMP detachment, which housed more than 2,000 people detained under the Intoxicated Persons Detention Act in 2019.
Misgivings about the location near the school were expressed at that meeting by Coun. Jeff Fountain, though he still voted in favour of the property transfer and the project agreement.
The SDML trustees have asked that the main entrance of the sobering centre not be facing Wapanohk, that security measures such as barriers and fencing and regular patrols of the grounds be considered and that the bus stop in front of the former UCN campus, which has been mostly vacant since the new campus opened in 2014, be moved further down Princeton Drive. The letter also requests that the city maintain regular communication about the sobering centre with the school district.
